Post Cards from a bar stool

The Beer Travelers are headed down Interstate 84 in their sport-utility vehicle with the "Real Women Don't Drink Light Beer" bumper sticker on the back. Suddenly a guy in a rental truck starts beeping at us.

We look over as he drives past, and he's making drinking motions with his arm. We smile and roll down the window.

"Were you at the convention?" he asks. We say yes. "The bumper sticker gave it away," he says.

Turns out he too was at the National Craft-Brewers Conference; he does something involving giant screens. He wishes us a safe journey and moves on.

We can't count the number of times on this trip people told us they think we have the best job in the world. We don't always agree, especially after a 10-pub day, but watching the truck disappear down the road made us think they might be right.

That written, here are a few excerpts from the various notebooks we filled up on this trip.

Pittsburgh, Pa., April 18

Our advice is pretty simple for the Steel City is pretty simple: Go there. The city is full of terrific ethnic neighborhoods with wonderful neighborhood taverns serving food inviting enough to make you forget about drinking beer (well, almost). The Sharp Edge Bar, which we gave one star to in the Beer Travelers Guide, is flat-out a two-star joint. The bartender is wearing a Sierra Nevada shirt, our waitress a Rogue Ales shirt. Linguine with white clam sauce costs $8.65, eggplant parmesan $7.50 and baked cod $7.95. Patrons seated at the bar are debating the answer to the Final Jeopardy question on "Jeopardy!" And while Bloomfield Bridge Tavern and Chiodo's (in Homestead) don't have as wide a beer selection, they are genuine neighborhood hangouts. The walls at Bloomfield Bridge are covered with the awards the place has won for its Polish food (and the pierogies were killers), and a band ready to blow your ears back with alternative music is setting up as we leave. We are finishing the evening here at Chiodo's, and Daria amuses herself by watching the bartender disappear and reappear through a trapdoor behind the bar. Bottled imports are regularly $2.25, the best price in town, and micros are usually a little less. Stuff -- bras, sports stuff, a bedpan -- hangs everywhere. A crab cake dinner will run you $5.50.

Ephrata, Pa., April 19

The walls of Wahtney's Inn are fieldstones, and some of the floor and ceiling are from when an inn was first built here in 1767. Meanwhile, there's a computer terminal in the middle of the bar so patrons can cruise the Internet. It's new and not working today. The bar has Blue Moon beer on tap, and after the bartender draws a pint for a customer, we ask her if she knows which brewery produces the beer. She's stunned to find out this is a Coors product; because of political reasons, she doesn't drink Coors. "Thank goodness I've only had a small taste," she says, thanking us for the information. Next time somebody tells you that truth in labeling doesn't make a difference, remember her.

Ocean City, Md., April 20

Ollie's Pub is a retail liquor store with one of the widest selections in the country. More than 700 different beers are available, but the really neat thing is you can drink beer while you shop. In fact, you might as well shop because the place is only 600 square feet, meaning there's basically room for the beer, a few customers and nine taps mounted behind the counter. Forget bar stools. Of course, the rule that you shouldn't shop for food under the influence of hunger has the corollary that you shouldn't shop for beer under the influence of beer. You have a few draughts -- the accent is on regional craft beers, Stan enjoyed Tupper's Hop Pocket while perusing the Belgian ales -- and who knows how many of those giant bottle of DeGroen's beer (from Baltimore) you might be toting home?

Hillsborough, N.J., April 23

Jersey Jim's is new enough that some of the old signs for Jasper's -- the restaurant that was here before the brewpub opened -- are still up. The last time we were here was for Daria's sister's wedding, which was also the night we told her mother we were getting married. This time we're buying her lunch. The place has been totally remodeled since then, and the brewing equipment is directly behind the long wooden bar. The porter is the best brewpub beer of the trip so far (until we find the BruRm; see page 4), with a nice balance of malt and hops, substantial body and a good coffee edge.

Manhattan, April 24

Kick a keg at the Blind Tiger Ale House, and you drink the rest of the night for half price. Talk about putting the crawl in pub crawl. ... This place bills itself as a pre-Prohibition tavern, and it has been carefully renovated, with a tin ceiling, and dark beading and whitewashed brick on the walls. Located at 10th and Hudson in the Village, it's certainly a contrast to the Ginger Man, which opened a few months ago at 36th and Madison Avenue. The Ginger Man is a beautifully appointed pub with 66 draught choices (more than twice anyplace else in the five boroughs) and draws a crowd of patrons in white shirts and ties, who systematically fill the place with cigar smoke. The 28 draught choices at the Blind Tiger provide an exotic mix -- Boon Kriek, Leffe Blonde, Brooklyn East India Pale Ale, Rogue Hazelnut, Zip City Marzen, Park Slope Belgian Blonde, etc. -- with Saranac Golden the "mainstream choice." The place has been open less than two months, and patrons have indicated they are looking for something new -- Boston Beer Co. and Pete's Brewing beers were on tap when the place opened, but not now.

Middletown, Conn., April 25

Eli Cannon's looks a little like Chiodo's inside but is actually less than two years old. That the nostaglic items on the walls and ceiling have been carefully placed doesn't really matter. As soon as we take our seats in a large wooden booth, the waitress grabs the chalkboard with the draught choices and sets it in front of us. There are 25 beers and one birch beer available (soon there will be 34 taps), and beside the date of each selection is the date the keg was tapped. The oldest beer has been around for 11 days. Our blackened hamburgers are very tasty but could be spicier. One of the chalkboards -- there are several -- announces that the beer garden will open soon. It is a lovely enclosed patio in back with tables and umbrellas, sure to be a fine place to try "The Kiss," which is half Blue Fin Stout and half birch beer.

Allston, Mass., April 26

While Daria and her sister, Nancy, go to the airport to pick up their niece, Erin, Stan and Dale (a guest star on previous Beer Travelers adventures) decide it would be awfully crowded taking one car to the airport and instead make some withdrawals from the "Sunset Street Bank." Really, at the Sunset Grill & Tap, there is an area decorated to look like ATM machines, and it's called the beer bank. It's tempting to say that once you've seen one 100-tap bar, you've seen 'em all, but the Sunset (110 taps now, compared to 76 when we last visited) remains overwhelming. Even reading the draught list twice and trying to look over all the handles, Stan misses the fact that Old Speckled Hen is on tap. It's Friday night, and the wait for a table is about 45 minutes, but it's not hard to get a bartender's attention. While we open with Hacker-Pschorr Maibock and Catamount Porter, we look over the 400 or so bottle choices -- and notice that one member of a couple near us is drinking Bud Light and the other Corona. It's a big beer world.

Boston, Mass., April 29